A Talk with Noach Korman, Director of Bat Melech

A Talk with Noach Korman, Director of Bat Melech

How did you come to establish Bat Melech, the shelter for Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox women who have suffered domestic violence?

“Seventeen years ago, when I was working as a young lawyer, a Haredi woman asked me to represent her in divorce proceedings. She had fled from her violent husband and gone to a shelter for battered women, only to discover that the shelter was completely unsuitable from a religious point of view: Shabbat, kosher food, the proper atmosphere. Her only alternative was to remain in the street.

“Words led to deeds: We found and made available an apartment with a staff that took in religious women who were victims of domestic violence. Of course, we’ve never suffered from less than full occupancy: The moment we rented the place it filled up, even before all the furniture arrived.”